


Esme

by meridian_rose (meridianrose)



Category: Black Sails
Genre: Accidental Baby Acquisition, Angst and Feels, Community: trope_bingo, Gen, Kid Fic, Trope Bingo Round 10
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-12
Updated: 2018-03-12
Packaged: 2019-03-30 09:37:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,790
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13948827
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meridianrose/pseuds/meridian_rose
Summary: Silver and Billy find a baby on board. Billy wonders about the stork. Silver wants to protect the child and names it. Max is horrified by their lack of knowledge of biology. Flint has the best idea of all. For the trope bingo prompt "kidfic"





	Esme

Flint was not onboard or things might have gone differently from the start.

Silver, tired of the galley and Randall and goddamn peeling vegetables, had come up onto the deck for some air. The breeze ruffled his hair and he took a deep breath. The sun was shining and for a moment everything was calm.

Then the crying started.

Silver looked around for the source of the sound, worried that the high-pitched squeals were from Betsy, trapped somewhere and yowling her disapproval.

"Do you hear that?" Billy asked, joining him as Silver peered into coils of rope and behind a crate.

"Yes. Where's it coming from?"

Billy and Silver listened a moment, then moved to where a bolt of sailcloth was sitting, ready to be used to repair a tear. Billy lifted the cloth and Silver stared down at the child beneath it. Pink-skinned and wrapped in a yellow knitted blanket, it kicked its legs as best it could against the constraining wool.

"Is that a baby?"

Silver bit back the urge to say something sarcastic like "unless it's a sea demon" because his short tenure at sea had already given him a taste of the superstitious nature of sailors, and to be honest he was getting a little superstitious himself.

It was with the utmost care that he picked up the child, hoping it wasn't some supernatural creature that would try and bite his head off. But the moment he lifted the baby it quieted and fixed sea-green eyes on his face, solemn but calm. Without conscious thought, Silver gently bounced the child, holding it against his chest.

Billy dropped the sailcloth, put his hands on his hips. "Where the hell did it come from?"

"Good question." Silver glanced up. "I doubt it fell from the sky."

"Well," Billy said. "They say that's how they get delivered by the stork?"

Silver blinked a few times. "Something more plausible, perhaps?"

Billy shrugged. "Maybe it belongs to one of the crew."

"The father brought it aboard?" That seemed like a terrible decision to have made.

"Or the mother. Maybe they were already on the ship."

"You mean one of the crew is a woman?" Silver had a hard time believing that. They lived in close quarters, privacy being a luxury only Flint truly had within the captain's cabin. For a day or two a woman might hide her femininity, but someone never known to take a piss in company would get noticed. "And one who was until recently pregnant?"

"No," Billy agreed, though this brought another question to mind. He gestured to the child. "How old do you think it is?"

"I don't know. Not a newborn," Silver said, fairly certain given the size of the baby. "A few weeks? A couple of months?"

There was a more pressing issue than where the child had appeared from, however and Billy raised it now.

"What are we going to do with it?"

Silver let out a long sigh. Sooner or later, probably sooner, the baby would be hungry and there wasn't anything on the ship they could feed such a young child.

"Take it to the mainland," Silver said. "Max will know what to do."

 

Max glared at him. She gestured at her breasts, cleavage impressive beneath the corset. "You think these make milk all the time?"

"Well, no?" Silver hadn't really thought about it until this moment. He deflected by nodding to Billy. "He thought the stork brought the baby."

Max raised her eyes heavenward, probably asking for strength to deal with such idiocy. "That child belongs to someone."

"Yes. And I'll happily hand it over but right now he or she needs feeding."

Max held out her arms. Silver frowned, his grip tightening on the child, suddenly and unaccountably reluctant to relinquish the precious bundle. It had been whimpering since they'd arrived on dry land and now started crying again.

"I'll find a wet nurse," Max said.

"You do that. I'll hold onto – I don't know if it's a boy or a girl."

Max sighed. "Maybe you should find out. Maybe the child is crying because it is wet."

They laid a towel on the bed and put the baby down carefully. Max opened the blanket and undid the pin holding the cloth nappy.

"A girl," she said softly. "Hello there _ma petite_."

The child gurgled. Max tore up an old towel to make a clean nappy while Silver held out his hand. The child grabbed hold of him, all of its hand enveloping his index finger. He gave her a smile.

"Esme," he said, recalling the name from a time long past, a girl he'd known briefly, an orphan as he was, with dirty blonde hair and sea-green eyes. He often wondered what fate had befallen her though he had his suspicions. The thought made him want to pick up the baby and never let her go.

"What?" Billy, watching, scowled. "You can't name her."

"Why not?"

"Because she's not yours and we're not keeping her."

"We can't keep calling the baby 'it' or 'her'," Silver protested. He addressed the child directly in a sing-song fashion. "Can we Esme? No, we can't."

Esme giggled at the baby talk and kicked her legs.

"Billy's right," Max said, slipping the clean cloth beneath Esme and folding it with skill that looked as if she'd done this before. She pinned it closed. "You need to find out who she belongs to."

"We will." Silver wrapped the worn blanket around Esme and picked her up, settling her in his arms. "But first you need to find her some food."

Max, grumbling in French, left the room.

"Don't get attached," Billy warned.

"Of course not."

 

"We should get back to the ship," Billy protested as the wet nurse sat on the bed, Esme suckling happily.

"You go. I'm not leaving Esme alone."

"Stop calling her that! She's not ours," Billy said.

"Until someone else claims her, she is my responsibility," Silver said, never having been voluntarily responsible for anything, at least not without recompense, in his life.

When the woman had finished feeding Esme she put her over one shoulder and patted her back. "You need to wind them," she said. "And careful they don't vomit down your back. She'll probably sleep now she's full."

The woman laid Esme down in the centre of the bed, accepted the coin that she'd been promised, and left. Silver sat down on the edge of the bed, rubbing at Esme's cheek with one knuckle. Esme yawned and closed her eyes.

Billy paced the room. Silver watched Esme sleep.

The door flew open.

"What the fuck are you idiots up to?" Flint demanded.

 

Flint had gone back to the ship, heard the gossip, returned to the island and, despite Max's protests, barged past her and into her room.

Esme woke up, startled, and started screaming. Silver picked her up and walked her around, soothing her as best as he knew how to, occasionally shooting angry glances at Flint. Max, standing near the doorway, exchanged a glance with Billy, who'd taken up a position by the window, arms folded.

Flint's anger had deflated and while he hadn’t apologised, he'd closed the door and sat down on a chair, lowering his voice when he asked how exactly they'd come to be in possession of a baby. Billy explained what little they knew.

"You named her Esme?" Flint asked finally.

"Yes." Silver held her closer, knowing what was coming next.

"You can't name her!"

"Then find her mother, assuming she still has one, and we'll ask what the baby's actually called!"

Max cleared her throat. "I have put word around," she said. "If anyone knows who this child belongs to, they will come forward. For a small reward, of course."

"Of course," Flint scoffed. "In the meantime, you can't keep a child on the ship and I don't think Max's clients want a screaming baby in the brothel. Men come here to get away from their responsibilities, not be reminded of them."

Silver shook his head. "What do you suggest then?" If the word orphanage was mentioned he and Esme were leaving immediately. There was no way he'd let this tiny innocent suffer as he had.

 

Miranda took Esme from Silver, who relinquished his hold with reluctance.

"She's lovely," Miranda said.

"Her name's Esme."

"It is not," Flint barked, making Esme whimper.

Miranda gave him a harsh look, rocking the baby until she quieted again. "We can't just call her 'baby'," she said and Silver shot Flint a look of vindication. "I think that's a nice name. It means 'loved'."

A wet nurse would come and stay with Miranda, and Esme would be well taken care of. Silver saw warmth and compassion in Miranda's eyes and knew the child would be safe and adored here. Rationally he knew that it was far better for Esme to be with this woman whom Flint trusted than in the grubby hands of a pirate cook.

"I promise I'll take care of her until we find her mother," Miranda said, seeing Silver watching the baby intently.

If that was possible. Silver nodded.

"I'll care for her as if she were my own," Miranda reassured him.

He nodded, not trusting his words under these circumstances. He blinked rapidly.

"You'll come and visit her?" Miranda asked gently.

Silver looked to Flint for permission, surprised by the offer.

"When we can," Flint said with a sigh. "Come on, time to go."

Miranda gave Silver an encouraging smile. "Tell her you'll be back soon," she said.

He moved to hold Esme's tiny hand, rubbing the back of it with his thumb. "Be good for Mrs Barlow," he said. "I'll come back and see you soon. Maybe we can bring Uncle Billy."

Billy had already been sent back to the ship and seemed to think he'd got the better part of the deal. Flint rolled his eyes but said, "Fine."

"Goodbye, little one." Silver released her and went outside. He began walking and Flint, having said his own goodbyes to Esme and Miranda, caught up with him a few minutes later, and only then because Silver finally slowed his pace.

"Where are you going in such a hurry?" Flint asked.

"Back to the ship. There's vegetables to peel."

Flint sighed. "Miranda will look after Esme," he said.

Silver nodded.

"Esme? Why that name?" Flint asked.

Silver shrugged. "Tavern wench I met in Southampton. I liked the sound of it."

It was a lie and Flint clearly knew it, but he didn't push the issue.

"Come on," Flint said. "Let's go and get a drink before we go back the ship. I think you need one."

That they both agreed upon.

**Author's Note:**

> [Tumblr promo post](http://meridianrose.tumblr.com/post/171793161606/esme-1790-words-by-meridianrose-chapters-11)


End file.
